A data center, also referred to as a server farm, typically includes a group of networked servers. The networked servers are housed together in a single location. A data center expedites computer network processing by combining the power of multiple servers and allows for load balancing by distributing the workload among the servers. More companies and other organizations are using data centers because of the efficiency of these centers in handling vast numbers of storage retrieval and data processing transactions. Depending on the nature and size of the operation, a data center may have thousands of servers. Typically, these servers are rack-mounted and placed in cabinets. Each cabinet may hold dozens of rack-mounted servers. These cabinets are generally organized into banks or aisles. Accordingly, a large data center may have several banks of cabinets that each contain several rack-mounted servers. All of these servers within the data center are typically monitored via a single console by one or two individuals who serve as network monitors.
Conventional data centers typically use server management software to monitor server components and alert system monitors in the event of a component failure. For example, if one of the hard drives of a server fails, then the server management software will send an alert message to the system monitor's console. The network monitor will respond to the alert message and rectify the failure. Because data centers are often implemented in mission critical operations that demand continuous and reliable operation, the servers of these data centers must operate continuously with very few failures. In the event of a server failure, the problem must be solved immediately. In this sort of environment, any down time is unacceptable. For example, if the data center of a financial firm goes down, a minute of down time can result in thousands of dollars of revenue in unexecuted stock transactions. Often, a failed or failing server component is the cause of the server failure. Examples of server components that may fail include hard drives, fans, and power supplies.
In the event of a system failure, the network monitors must dispatch a technician to the data center to find and replace the faulty component. Because the data center is used for a continuous or mission critical function, the technician must replace the faulty component as soon as possible. Each server typically includes several components that can be serviced by a user or technician. These components include fans, hard drives, motherboards, PCI cards, memory DIMMs, power supplies, cables, and CPUs, among other components. Each of these components may include one or more status lights that report the operational status of the component. A single component may include several status lights that report on the status of the device. The color of the status light, as well as whether the light is flashing or blinking, indicates whether the component is operating properly. For example, a green status light often indicates that the component is operating correctly. If the status light is a color other than green, or is flashing, then the device may be malfunctioning. Many components use a unique, if not complex, pattern of colored, blinking lights to communicate the status of the component.
As an example, a typical server hard drive contains several status lights. These hard drive status lights may correspond to power, disk activity, and an alarm indicator. Other server components may include more status lights than the typical hard drive. Because each server has several components, each server will have numerous status lights. For example, a typical server may contain eight hard drives, each of which includes three status lights. That same server may also include four power supplies, each containing three status lights. In addition, the server will typically include a dozen status lights on its front panel. This server will also typically include components that do not have status lights that are visible on the front panel. For example, the status lights for a fan unit are not visible until the chassis of server is opened. All told, a single server may include more than fifty individual status lights. A rack of servers may includes hundreds of individual status lights, and a single aisle within a data center may include thousands of individual status lights.